Cartagena a role model for women in construction

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Alaina Cartagena recalls attending a career fair in middle school and one of the adult representatives asking her what she wanted to do when she grew up.

“I said, ‘I don’t know, I just want to make a good living,’ and he said, ‘Young lady, you need to be a plumber,’” said Cartagena, a Hispanic-American master plumber and Milwaukee native.

She gained on-the-job experience during a five-year apprenticeship and then worked as a journeyman for three years before passing the test for master plumbers. She joined JM Brennan in 2004, during her apprenticeship, and became its plumbing estimating manager in 2008. The mechanical contracting company has more than $90 million worth of revenue a year, and Cartagena is responsible for all of the major plumbing bids.

“Alaina is a phenomenal female leader. She supports and encourages all of our new employees to work to their fullest potential,” said her colleague April Hannon. “Alaina is a great resource and confidant for our female employees. The challenges for females in the construction industry are much different from the challenges men are faced with, and Alaina is a great role model for the young women in our industry.”

Hannon noted that Cartagena also is a leader in Milwaukee’s “Be a Spark” program, which works with children in the Milwaukee Public School District. Through this program, she helps children of all ethnicities, showing them what a career in the trades could look like.

“It’s important to me because it’s outreach,” Cartagena said. “I have a chance to lead the kids through here and they talk with me and that’s kind of how I got started. It’s important to show them the options they have for good paying jobs and to see plumbers and engineers who look like them.”

When asked what advice she would offer young women considering a career in the trades, she noted, “I’d ask them why they want to be a plumber and remind them that it’s hard work.

It’s dirty at times and very physical, but it’s definitely possible. They should go for it and I’m positive they can do it.”

Cartagena is a member of the National Association of Women in Construction’s Milwaukee chapter, Women Building Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Plumbing Committee and its Plumbing Apprenticeship Committee.